West Mahomet (Id. No. 3681)
1918-1919
The Navy retained the name carried by this vessel at the time of her acquisition.
(Id. No. 3681: displacement 12,225; length 423'9"; beam 54'0"; depth of hold. 29'9"; draft 24'2" (mean); speed 11.5 knots; complement 76; armament none)
West Mahomet, a steel-hulled, single-screw cargo ship built under a United States Shipping Board (USSB) contract by the Skinner & Eddy Corp. of Seattle, Wash., launched on 19 October 1918, was turned over to the Navy on 13 November 1918 for operation by the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS). Assigned the identification number (Id. No.) 3681, the ship was commissioned the same day [13 November 1918], Lt. Cmdr. Raymond O. Demarest, USNRF, in command.
The cargo ship departed Seattle on 29 November 1918 with a cargo of 7,886 tons of flour. After proceeding via the Panama Canal, she reached New York on 28 December and sailed for the Near East on New Year's Day 1919. Upon her arrival at Constantinople on 5 February, she began discharging her cargo and then loaded 970 bales of tobacco and 1,470 tons of water ballast before getting underway for home on 5 March.
Following the discharge of her cargo at New York, West Mahomet took on board 5,513 tons of general Army cargo for transportation to Europe, got underway for Belgium on 26 April, and arrived at Antwerp on 12 May. Four days later, the ship headed back toward the United States; and she reached Newport News, Va., on 2 June 1919.
Simultaneously decommissioned, stricken from the Navy Register, and returned to the USSB on 3 June 1919, West Mahomet remained under government ownership into the 1930's, laid up for the latter part of that period. She was eventually abandoned, due to age and deterioration, in 1933.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
13 February 2024
